Sunday, May 17, 2009

Being able to participate in the Adopt a Blogger program and having Sara of Ms. Adventures of Italy as my mentor has already done me a world of good. She keeps giving me wonderful things to think about as I continue to blog and as I continue to carve out a niche for myself. While I'm still figuring out a satisfactory answer to Sara's first question ("What do you spend time discovering, finding, tasting, sharing?"), I decided to tackle her second question head-on: "What's one area where you'd like to improve?"

My answer was actually two-fold: to improve upon the originality of my recipes and to improve upon Taste As You Go's website design. Obviously, the first part of my answer is going to take time. But I knew I could work on the second part of my answer if I allowed myself enough time to focus on the task. It turns out that being stuck at home on a Saturday with some random stomach bug gave me all the time I needed to revamp the website.

Honestly, I've been wanting to give the blog a facelift after only a few months of writing. I wanted something simple and clean that avoided too much clutter in the sidebar. I wanted something that would allow my pictures to pop and to attract the eyes of my readers. And, damn it, I wanted a header image that would reinforce the fact that Taste As You Go is, indeed, a food blog. After fiddling around for a couple of hours, here's what I came up with:

Oh, but I didn't stop there! For those who read Taste As You Go in a feed aggregator or for those who receive updates via email, be sure you click through to see the updates I've made to the blog design!

The unveiling of the site's new design seems like the perfect time to discuss the Sisterhood Award that was given to me by Sue of Food Network Musings. I met Sue at the very first Foodbuzz Featured Publishers event I attended, which also happened to be the event where I won a gift certificate for dinner at The River Cafe! She was, in my opinion, the three Fs -- friendly, funny, and forward. Sue was an immediate new friend and I knew I could count on her to get up to the front and to get the perfect pictures of all of the food and to get Chef Steelman to answer all of her answers (and then some). Seriously, I should be the one passing on this award to Sue because she so openly welcomed a new food blogger into the fold and started offering advice and tips without blinking an eye. Thank you, Sue!

The Sisterhood Award is for our blogging sisters who show great attitude and gratitude. And with the Award comes the rules:

Put the logo on your blog or post.

Nominate up to ten blogs which show great attitude and/or gratitude.

Be sure to link to your nominees within your post.

Let the nominees know they have received this award by commenting on their blog or sending them an email.

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comments:

Thanks for the award! I will pass it on as soon as I can. I very much like your new design (though of course now I can't remember the old!) The photo mosaic of you eating says it all and is perfect for Taste As You Go. I also like the all the white background, and your writing style.

Joan - You're very welcome for the award! The old design was made up of more muted colors (think light olive green and tan) with green flourishes in the corners. I'm thinking now that I should have taken a "before" screenshot to go along with the "after"!

Thanks for your comments about the new design and my writing. I'm pretty proud of that photo header image, though I'm embarrassed by how long it took me to get it "just right"! :)

HoneyB - Thanks, Shelby! I actually added a new comment feature after posting the announcement about the new design (I knew I should have waited to make that announcement!), so there are still improvements to be made. So far, I'm loving the new look. :)